He dropped the boat in the shallows and quickly paddled out into the water, working hard to get away from the shore as fast as possible past the breakers. The waves were still small, but according to his surf report, they were going to pick up later. And this side of the island was not as choppy.
Once he settled into the calm, he took out his phone and started looking at the maps. There were numerous small islands and inlets around the area. One of them had to be the place where Ariel was retreating.
Cutting his oar into the water, he headed toward the closest series of islands. At first glance, none of them appeared to be large enough to house anything. But as he got deeper into the vegetation of the snaking inlet they got larger in size. On one of the farther ones was a house, brown, slat-board, dilapidated. It didn’t look like anyone could live there. Maybe someone had fifty years ago.
Grounding the kayak onto the rocky shore with a few hard shoves, he climbed out and walked up the wet sand to the house. The place was deserted, and had been for a long time. He pressed on, opening the front door with a shove of his shoulder. The door protested and fought but he managed to twist inside.
The place smelled like the sea. The wood had soaked up years of salt and seaweed, but surprisingly the interior looked to be mostly intact. It was dirty, and musty, but it looked better than he figured it would.
It appeared that there was once an upstairs. But only the bones of the staircase remained and reached to nowhere. He looked straight up to the beamed roof. The place was too big to call a shack, but fell short of being a house at this point.
Jake moved cautiously over the wooden floor as the creaks and groans of protesting panels threatened to crack and drop him into the basement. Although a look through some of the busted planks revealed no basement, only a dirt crawlspace of about two feet down.
He felt like this was a waste of time but explored the island extensively anyway. He wasn’t even sure why he was here…other than the peacefulness the place had nothing to offer. Nothing here was going to help him. The sun was dropping and he didn’t want to get caught out there in the dark, so he decided to head back.
With a shove and a hop, he was back into the water and paddling out. As he cut around the first path back toward open water, he saw her on the rocks. For the first time, he saw her entire form, tail and all just lying there. She was on her side with her head propped on her hand.
“Ariel, I didn’t expect to see you.”
“What’re you doing out here?”
“I was looking for you.”
“So you did expect to see me.”
Jake thought about her point. “I guess what I meant was I didn’t expect to see you just right out in the open, it’s still daylight. How’d you find me?”
“I had a feeling. I’m not exactly sure.” She smiled coyly. “I’m drawn to you, I guess. This place is very secluded. No one comes back here.”
“But I just did.”
Ariel smiled. “But no one else would be so nosy.”
“I wanted to see you.”
“Now you see me.” She smiled. “And now you don’t.” With a splash she jumped into the water and took off down the stream toward the ocean.
Jake slapped his paddle into the water, ripping off a few quick strokes on one side before switching to the more traditional left-right swipes that propelled him forward. Ariel popped up in front of him and looked back, to see if he was chasing.
Out into the flat deeper water, away from the inlets, she disappeared again and didn’t come back up. Jake stopped and looked around. After what seemed like a long wait, she popped up at the bow of his kayak, and held on.
“Now you see me again.”
He looked around. It wasn’t nearly dark enough. “Isn’t it kind of light out?”
“So?”
“So someone down the shore over there could see you.”
“Not unless they have a telescope. Besides, I’m on the other side of your boat. They can’t see me.”
“I guess not.” He glanced around. “Ariel, you should know that someone doesn’t want me to see you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Last night, there was this strange guy by my car. He said some strange stuff. Then this morning, well, someone threw like a hundred little plastic mermaids at my house.”
She looked at him and for the first time her pretty smile seemed to sour. He’d never seen her look so serious. Yet she still looked so beautiful. She glowed even when she wasn’t trying to glow. “What could it mean?”
“I don’t know, Ariel. But obviously someone is trying to scare me away from you.”
“You don’t know that. And anyway, that’s impossible. No one has seen us together.”
He shrugged. “Someone has. I met someone today who said he saw someone like you, only a long time ago.”
Ariel let her chin drop to her arms. She looked so sad.
“Hey,” Jake said. “Don’t be sad. I’m not afraid.”
“There is no one like me anymore.”
“But there was.”
Ariel nodded. “Father told me she died.”
“Your mother?”
She nodded as tears welled up in her eyes. “She died on the day I was born.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, it’s the circle of life. My kind must die in order to be born.”
“What? Who told you that?”
“Father told me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“That’s the way it goes. Soon I will become pregnant and then I too will have to die.”
“That’s ridiculous. I don’t believe that.”
“It’s all true.”
“How can that be?”
“It has always been that way.”
“That’s morbid. That’s sad.”
“It’s only sad to you. I’ve been ready for it my entire life.”
Jake knew something was askew. If the woman that washed up on the beach twenty some years ago was Ariel’s mother, she didn’t die of natural causes. She died from a gunshot wound to the head.
“Ariel, what’s your father’s name?”
She looked at him as if no one had ever asked her and she didn’t know the answer. She eventually replied. “His name is Bruce Shepard. Why do you ask?”
He was a little surprised he had a name. “I was just curious.”
“You can’t tell that to anyone, Jake, not a soul. I’m not even supposed to know that.”
“Huh? Why aren’t you supposed to know your own father’s name?”
“That’s just the way it is. We mermaids aren’t supposed to know about our human guardians.”
“Well, isn’t he your father?”
“He’s my guardian, he’s not my father. I don’t have a father.”
“Well, forgive me for asking, but how did your mother get pregnant?”
“Mermaids just become pregnant when they hit a certain age. There is no partner needed for procreation.”
“What?” Jake laughed a little. “This is so bizarre.”
“There are many creatures of the sea who are born with seed. And that seed takes many years to bloom. I will become pregnant when the time is right.”
“So you never got to meet your mother, and you have no father.”
“We lead lonely lives. The sea is our only friend.”
“How do you get your human guardians?”
“They are chosen for us. We do not question these things.”
“Ariel, I gotta say, I thought being a mermaid was the weirdest thing about you, but your whole deal is far more bizarre than I would’ve imagined.”
“It is a unique life, but we cannot choose it. What we are born into are just the circumstances of our existence. We enjoy them to the best of our abilities.”
“Every creature on earth should have free will. It should be a God given right.”
“I have free will. I can freely enjoy my life for as long as it lasts
, as limited as it is. I don’t dwell on what might be or what could be, I only live in what is.”
Jake didn’t know what else to say. He could learn a lot from her. “I guess that’s admirable.”
“We grow where we are planted, Jake.”
“Well, where you’re planted sucks.”
“Only to you. I do not wish to aspire to be more than I am.”
He nodded, but her face hid another truth. It was getting dark and he didn’t want to have to navigate back to the shore blind. “I have to start heading back.”
“I will swim with you.”
They coasted through the sea in silence for several minutes. Then Ariel said, “You’re sad. I can sense it.”
“I’m sad for you.”
“Don’t be.”
“I’m trying not to be. But I’m also sad for me, selfishly.”
“That’s natural.”
“I just met you, and now I feel like you’re going to be taken away from me too. Just like everyone else.”
“Not for a time still.”
“So you say. But apparently you don’t even know when you’re going to have to die. This is a horrible uncertainty.”
“I will have nine months to prepare myself for it.”
“Birth is supposed to be beautiful, but for you it’s a death sentence.”
“Life is a death sentence, Jake. We are all born to die.”
“That’s just too depressing.”
“It can be, but it can also be freeing. I live like my life is going to be short because it is. I enjoy every moment. I see the wonder everywhere. You should too.” She popped up on the kayak with him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Then she kissed him long and soft, yet firm.
She let go and slid back into the sea. “Goodnight, sweet Jake. Sleep well and dream of the sea—dream of me—and in another universe—what we could be.” And she slipped away.
Chapter 12
Carrying his kayak back to his car, he didn’t expect to see Ashley waiting for him. “Ashley, what’re you doing here?”
“I stopped by the house to see you. Tom said you’d taken the kayak, so I figured you were either at Masonboro or here.”
He put down the plastic boat. “What’s going on?”
She shrugged. “Not much. I just wanted to see a friendly face.”
“Is everything okay on the home front?”
“Not so much really, no. Mike and I are not getting along and it’s just getting worse all the time. It’s becoming unbearable.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t even know. I think we’re going to get a divorce. We just argue about everything lately. I’m just having a real hard time feeling good around him. I don’t want to be around him at all. I’m going to see a lawyer on Monday.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get married.” She put her hand over her gaping mouth. “I’m so sorry, Jake. That was insensitive of me. I can’t believe I said that. I just slipped up. I forgot who I was talking to for a second.”
“It’s okay, Ash, really it is. I’m really doing so much better. I don’t want you to have to edit yourself around me.”
She smiled. “I’m happy to hear that. You have no idea.”
“Well, a lot of that has to do with you. I think you should know that. I think you do know that.”
She smiled. “I’m glad.”
God he missed that quirky little smile. Ashley had a smile that could always send his heart soaring. Even in his deepest love with Cassie, seeing Ashley smile had a special feeling. He didn’t know what it meant, if anything, but it was still there.
“Do you want to get a drink or something?”
She nodded. “I could use something.”
“Lemme put the kayak back on my car. We’ll just leave your car here.”
“That’s fine.” She picked up half the kayak and helped him mount it on the roof of the Beetle.
They drove off.
“Where do you want to go?” Jake shifted gears as the road smoothed out.
“Let’s go to the Tiki. We can sit on the pier and just listen to the waves while my brain turns into an alcoholic stew.”
He nodded. “Sure, we can do that. But we may end up walking home.”
“That’s fine as long as we stay on the island to drink.”
“Ha, of course we would…where else would we go?”
“Well, we could go downtown.”
He laughed and didn’t see the car that had sped up and bumped softly into the rear of them. “Whoa!” Jake exclaimed.
Ashley turned around. “What the hell?”
The car bumped into them again, a little harder.
Jake’s first reaction was to pull to the side of the road, and when he did, the car pulled up next to them unexpectedly. He didn’t realize what he was seeing until the cracking sound of gunfire tore into the night.
He hit the gas hard, sending them lurching forward. He glanced over at Ashley to make sure she wasn’t hurt. “You okay?”
“Fine, just get us the hell out of here.”
Jake had always been a top end driver, which was part of the thing that bothered him so much about the accident. He should have been able to drive his way out of it like he always had before.
But right now he wanted to get away from the threat. He cut the wheel hard, grabbed the emergency brake, and sent the Beetle into quick 180-degree spin. Then he mashed the gas pedal and sent the car screeching forward. Thank goodness this was a modern age turbo-charged Beetle with a good amount of giddy-up and go, not one of the old clunkers, or they’d be doomed. It just looked like an old clunker, but it ran well.
Their pursuer turned around with screeching tires and hurried toward them again. He thought he heard more bullets but wasn’t sure. The engines and tires and twisting of machinery was impossible to discern.
Jake cut the wheel again, did another 180-degree turn, and headed straight at the car charging at them.
“Jake, what’re you doing?”
“Trust me.”
Ashley reached up and grabbed the plastic handhold on the A-pillar. She gripped it for dear life. Jake drove straight at the oncoming car full speed, and at the last second cut the wheel so hard the car nearly rode up on two wheels. He cut the wheel back onto the road and just kept the gas pedal pinned, heading up the beach road toward the more populated areas. He looked up one more time in the rearview mirror and saw the chaser peel off down one of the side streets. Whoever they were thought better of the chase into the busy areas.
He pulled into the busy boardwalk and shut off the car. They sat in silence while they caught their breath.
Ashley looked over to him. “What the hell was that, Jake?”
He shook his head. Not a single part of him wanted to tell her the story, but every single part of him knew he had to. If there was anyone on this planet he had to trust right now, it had to be Ashley. He could kid himself and say it had nothing to do with Ariel, but he knew that was a lie.
“Okay, Ashley, I’m about to tell you a story. You’re going to think I’m crazy, I’m sure of it. But you have to trust me it’s all real.”
“You’re freaking me out a little bit.”
“Well, this is some weird shit.”
“You can tell me anything, you know that.”
Jake went on in detail about everything. He told the story from the first night he’d seen Ariel while he held a gun to his head, to the last conversation they’d just had tonight and everything in between. He’d left out only one part, the part about the kisses. That was one detail he didn’t need to share. He watched her face the entire time, trying to pick out at what point she assumed he’d lost his mind, but she had a good poker face.
Finally, when he was done he sat back into the seat, waiting for her response. She sighed and just said, “Let’s go get that drink.”
After a short walk across the boardwalk to Hurricane Alley, they slid up to the wooden bar. They o
rdered some strong drinks and downed them, then Jake looked at her and asked, “Are you going to say something?”
She looked at him. “Jake, I don’t know what to say. And I’m not being funny. I literally don’t know what to say. I mean, I thought you were doing so well, and now I want to think you’re cracking up.”
“That’s fair.”
“Are you cracking up?”
“No, Ashley, I’m not. I haven’t been this lucid in months.”
“I just don’t…I mean…what would you say to someone who told you that stuff?”
He shrugged. “I’d say they were nuts.”
“Right? I mean, what else could it be?”
He downed the shot in front of him. “That guy with the gun in the car wasn’t an illusion.”
Ashley downed her shot of whiskey. “Well, I know, Jake, but that’s easier to believe than some sort of crazy mermaid conspiracy.” She laughed. “I mean, next thing you’re going to tell me is that you’re in love with her.”
Jake didn’t answer right away. Ashley took that as a yes.
“Oh, come on, Jake, don’t even.”
“No, I’m not in love with her. I’m intrigued by her.”
“That seems to be like the same thing right now.”
“I wish I could explain it but here we are. And she’s real.”
She took another drink and asked for another. Then after a few minutes, she looked at him and said, “Okay, let’s play. Maybe this is all real. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know what it means.”
“I’m sorry, Jake—I can’t wrap my head around this.”
“Ashley, do you trust me?”
She looked at him, met his eyes. “You know I do.”
“Then believe.”
“I want to.”
“Then do it.”
She sipped the pineapple-spiked rum the bartender placed on front of her. “Okay, Jake. I’m going to trust you. You’ve seen something out of this world. I will believe you.”
“Thank you.”
“But you have to give me some leeway here to doubt a little bit. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“I do trust you, and that’s the only reason I’m willing to bend my belief in reality.”
The Mermaid Page 7
